Monthly Archives: April 2023

Quiltfest in Greenville

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My husband and I recently went to Greenville, SC, for a few days including Mancuso Quiltfest. I didn’t take any classes, but here are a few of my favorite quilts from the show.

I was especially impressed with this cross section of a downed tree trunk:

Fallen Hero by Barbara Dahlberg

I was interested in this small crazy quilt shown above because I’m always wondering what to do with my vintage textiles, and a crazy quilt seems an appropriate use of them..

Crazy Patchwork by Denise Flynn.

I thought the following wall quilt was an especially effective use of color because it is so straightforward.

Hard Rain by Betty Colburn

And I enjoyed the way the quilting (scribbled lines) enhanced the appearance of this quilt, which I think most people would have quilted with the same old matchstick quilting:

Scribbled Lines by Sherri Lipman-McCauley

There was a special exhibit of “Fabulous Faces” by Jean Impey and Freddy Moran. I loved them ALL, but here are a couple:

And, lest you think I only admired the art quilts, here are some of my favorites among the quilts of a size to be used for warmth.

I enjoyed this scrappy variation on a design I know as Perkiomen Valley. The maker attributes this variation on the design to Bonnie Hunter, and it certainly has enough pieces to be one of hers!

Split Nine Patch, pieced and quilted by Jean Anderson

I love this unusual arrangement of colors, which the maker states is her variation on the Modern Mystery 2023 quilt hosted by Modern Quilt Studio:

New Day by Karen Foster

This one had wonderful colors, and I enjoyed the use of the “broken dishes” block for a quilt about (unbreakable) melamine:

Melted Melamine by Ben Millett

This gorgeous Celtic design quilt was large and I had trouble getting a good picture of it, but hopefully you can appreciate some of the work that went into it:

Celtic Dream by Elizabeth Ann Thackery

This quilt is made from a pattern, and I thought it was an especially effective design:

Starfield by Diane Poor. Pattern is Niagara Stars by Mara Quilt Designs.

Of course there were many more beautiful quilts! I would go to this show again, especially because there were other things we enjoyed in Greenville.

Classes With David Owen Hastings

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I read something about David Owen Hastings, a graphic designer who also quilts, and wanted to take a class with him. Luckily within a few months I saw that Mancuso Show Management was having him teach over Zoom as part of their Quiltfest Virtual Schoolhouse, and I quickly signed up.

I should mention that I didn’t just randomly find the Mancuso organization; I was familiar with Quiltfest from when we lived in Eastern Pennsylvania. They’ve produced top-notch quilt shows, so I trusted them enough to try their (sort of pricey) Zoom classes.

The classes did not disappoint. Communication with the Manucso organization was seamless from registration right through the classes. (Like most folks I’ve had some Zoom experience in the past few years, which helped.) Classes started on time and, surprisingly, there were no technical difficulties! Woo!

The first class I took was Indi-Go Modern, which focused on designs in blue and white. I had planned to use my indigo-dyed fabric from a class with Debbie Maddy, but my motifs were too big for the designs David was using. I enjoyed the exercise of designing with two colors and plan to continue the exploration. Here’s my design so far, obviously unfinished:

David’s comment was, “Wow! Really minimal!” or something similar…

The nice surprise at the end of this class was that David talked about how to work out the quilting design for a piece. He even suggested possible quilting designs for some of the student works. I’ve never had a teacher take the design process that far and it was quite helpful.

The second class I took was sewn paper collage, and it was fun, too. In fact, it was far easier to have immediate success. I pasted each collage onto a blank greeting card and put them away for when someone needs a unique card.

My husband’s comment when he saw them was something like, “That would be nice if you’d trim the threads!”

And after the class I decided to weave some of my remaining paper into a collage, so here it is, too.

I recommend classes with David Owen Hastings, as his approach is different and therefore extra useful. He managed to be encouraging to everyone.

I also recommend the Mancuso Schoolhouse platform. Yes, the classes were a little expensive, but still far less than if I’d had to travel for them, and the platform worked well.

 

Wonky Geese

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This was such a fun quilt! Quick, easy, and in some of my favorite colors 😀

It’s a great introduction to using freezer paper templates to make cutting so much easier for odd shapes.  And  BTW,  that  is  NOT  paper  piecing!!!

Quilt Stats

Name: Wonky Geese

Pattern: Monkey Business by Abbey Lane Quilts

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Finished size: 52″ x 65″

Since it’s such fun, I’ll be teaching this quilt at Studio Stitch. It starts Wednesday, May 3, and runs for 3 sessions so we can get it ALL done 😀

Trying a Couple of Things

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A few weeks ago two events occurred serendipitously: The final challenge for Project Quilting was “Conquer A Fear”, and a friend helped me try ruler quilting.

Practicing on a piece of fabric where mistakes can’t be seen!

In fairness, I tried ruler quilting a couple of years ago and decided it wasn’t for me–seemed like just FMQ (free-motion quilting) with complications. So maybe I was scared because I wasn’t immediately good at it?

Anyway, after some instruction from my friend I made several practice pieces, then this round quilt for Project Quilting.

It’s not perfect. Not even close. But good enough for now.

And then something else interesting happened. I had recently cut some striped binding at 30 degrees instead of 45 degrees and found that I got the same diagonal stripe effect with less of the stretchy-wobbly-crawly stuff that happens with true bias binding. It worked very well on this quilt:

So I had a little of that striped binding left and decided to use it on the Project Quilting circle. Turns out a 9″ circle really could have benefitted from fully bias (45 degree) binding.

Just look at all I learned in a 9″ circle 😀  Mission accomplished!

And one more thing…finding that striped binding reminded me that I never showed one of my favorite quilts from 2022:

Quilt Stats

Name: Rock Star Granny

Source: Rock Star Granny pattern from Crystal Manning, available here

Finished size: 62″ x 62″ (smaller than the pattern size)

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Wild Geese: Another Finish

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It may seem like I’m finishing a quilt every 15 minutes, but the truth is that I’ve gotten waaaay behind on binding. Since I don’t count a quilt as finished until I bind it, catching up on binding makes me look very productive 😀

This quilt is from a pattern, Wild Geese by Natalie Barnes. It’s available on Etsy here, though I’m sure there are other sources as well.

I’m not entirely sure how I came across this pattern, but I was so impressed with all the interesting angles and bright colors that I bought the pattern and made it immediately. I enjoyed pulling out all the bright scraps!

The pattern was quick and easy to follow. This was a fun quilt to make and I think it’s fun to look at, too.

And BTW, I’ve just learned from Laura, a fellow blogger, that a project that jumps ahead of other things in the queue is called a squirrel! Am I the last to learn that term? Anyway, it’s a good one because most quilters I know have studios full of squirrels, as do I.

Here’s a picture showing the backing and binding.

OK, that backing fabric. I bought it with the idea of cutting it up for an easy kaleidoscope quilt, where the MJ wouldn’t have been quite so obvious! Oh, well.

Quilt Stats

Name: Wild Geese

Designed by: Natalie Barnes of Beyond the Reef

Finished size: 52″ x 71″

Quilted by: Linda Nichols